Last month it was reported that rapper Drake had acquired a Boeing 767 dubbed ‘Air Drake’. Now it turns out he got the plane for free.
Travel bloggers descend on the TBEX conference hoping their small instagram following might net them a free hotel room night somewhere. Others hope to get free beauty supplies or diapers.
Drake, it turns out, is a big enough influencer – with 58 million followers on Instagram and 38 million on Twitter — that he gets a free plane.
Drake showed off his incredible “Air Drake” Boeing 767-24Q(ER) last month, which looked more like an upscale living room inside—both in furnishings as well as space. The spacious interiors have gleaming woodwork, gold-hued accents, and leather seating. Its baby blue exterior features two of Drake’s personal logos and “Air Drake” written on the engines. It’s a plane large enough to haul hundreds of passengers, only this one is all Drake’s.
The fully renovated 23 year old Boeing 767 “was estimated to cost between $80 million and $100 million,” though without knowing what they spent on customization that seems high to me.
Ontario, Canada’s CargoJet gave Drake the plane to generate publicity. 767s are popular with cargo carriers. Drake is Canadian and starred on the sequel to Canada’s teen melodrama Degrassi Junior High.
Supporting home grown businesses has always been a top priority of mine, so when an opportunity came up to get involved with Cargojet, a great Canadian company I was honored to do so. @CargoJetAirways @ajayvirmani1 pic.twitter.com/orrLpuHwOL
— Drizzy (@Drake) May 13, 2019
He went on to break several Billboard records. I happen to think he was pretty incredible when he was making music with Lil Wayne.
Here’s Drake making an announcement on board his plane.
I’ll be curious to see how long/much he actually uses this thing. There’s a multitude of reasons why even the richest of the rich don’t opt for widebody aircraft for their personal executive transport. Methinks the “acquisition” will get lots of fanfare, and the rapidly ensuing final flight to Victorville will be kept on the low-low.
Let’s hope the plane doesn’t suffer from the Drake curse!
I am a regular reader but didn’t know you were a fan of Drake during the Wayne era . Respect.
This seems like such a poor, poor utilization of money on CargoJet’s behalf. Without knowing much about the demographics of Drake’s followers on either platform, we can easily presume a not-insignificant amount are bots, another not-insignificant portion are very likely fake accounts purchased to increase followership, and the vast, vast majority of the rest (99%) are highly unlikely to be in the market for sending shipments of goods via plane. What kind of publicity were they hoping to drum up? And with whom? Sure, it’s CargoJet’s money to spend, but whaaaa?
The plane is not worth $100m, and if it is Drake I bet does not get to keep it long term. There is more to this story that we don’t see.
That the plane is fully renovated may just mean the interior is new (and Drake may have paid for that). If plane was near end of life or due to go in for heavy MX, cargojet may have been planning on parking it in the desert. Good publicity for all involved though
No doubt he’ll do all the virtue signalling around climate change, but still fly around with a few people in a 767.
Isn’t there a former Russian TransAero B767-200ER sitting at HK airport, and is up for auction for 800K USD?
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/3009998/boeing-plane-abandoned-hong-kong-bankrupt-russian-airline
https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/05/article/bargain-boeing-on-the-block-in-hong-kong/
Actual airframe: https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/Boeing/767/EI-CXZ-Transaero-Airlines/6kLKFg5b
The costs in things like private planes and yachts is not the purchase but the enormous ongoing maintenance. For a fancy yacht it costs 10% of the purchase price YEARLY to maintain it.
@ Gary — Where’s your free plane? You are a major influencer! You should definitely get an A380 and invite me along. 🙂
“The private jet ownership is despite his efforts to campaign against climate change in his songs. With song lyrics that include: “[They’re] talkin’ bout how the weather’s changing / the ice is melting / like the world is ending,” you would think he would try to live a low carbon lifestyle, but alas.”
I guess he has changed his mind on weather.